Saturday, October 2, 2010

More fall fun!

Today was another fun-filled Saturday. It started with our monthly trip to Ikea. (I really have a hard time not going when they give me $20 to spend for free!) My aunt Paula came to visit this weekend so she and Peter checked out the display rooms in Ikea while I hunted around for what was on my list. After that, we stopped at Panera for some lunch. I used to not like Panera very much (except for breakfast) since they mostly served sandwiches. Now that they have salads on the menu, it's great! Their salads are fabulous! And they change for each season. Yum!

After lunch we headed to Simmons Farm to go apple picking. Peter and I have made a tradition to go apple picking once a year and we have always gone to Simmons. It's a huge operation, much more than just apple picking, and it definitely gets you in the mood for Fall!

It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon. Luckily, I had sunglasses in the car!

Peter wanted to pick the first apple. He did...but then he dropped it on the ground. You can kind of see in this picture the beginning of disappointment spreading across his face haha.

He quickly recovered from the trauma of dropping the first apple and had no hesitations about picking (and chomping into!) the next apple.

Paula and Peter are both enjoying apple picking:

We stumbled across this dying (already dead??) tree. We thought of the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree and decided to take a picture near it.

We bought the big bag to fill with apples. It doesn't look like that big of a bag in this picture, but it held a lot of apples!

We usually head a few rows away from where everyone else is. Most people just get out of the car and start picking right away. That's ok, but it doesn't take long for the trees near the entrance/pay station to not have many apples to pick. We head to empty rows and the trees are stocked!

Peter took this picture of me from the next row. I really like the blues and greens of the picture. So pretty - especially with the fluffy white clouds in the sky.

Looks delicious, doesn't it? :)

We found a nest in one of the trees. No birds though!

There were 5 varieties in season to pick from today. Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Rome, Jonagold, and Empire. All quite yummy! The red apples are so much easier to see in the trees than the green ones!

Paula had never gone apple picking before. I hadn't either until I was married, but now it's a fun fall tradition. :)

Clusters of yummy apples:

All done! It didn't take very long to fill our bag - only about an hour.

Like I said, it was sunny!

But so nice to be out in the sunshine getting some fresh air!

After picking apples, we went to the little store area and bought apple cider and fresh corn. I love the little shop area, but it's always so busy! They always have great food to buy there though. I usually have a hard time not buying something!

We stopped by Starbucks for a frappucino (Chai Cream with 2 pumps of Pumpkin Spice = YUM) and then headed home. We ended up making one last stop at Kirklands. The ones near my house and Paula's have closed so we couldn't pass up the opportunity. :P I ended up getting a the small plate set for my living room nook. I'll have to take a picture of them tomorrow. They look great!

I put a turkey breast in my crock pot before heading out in the morning and just had to pop it in the oven, fix up some sides and we had a delicious little turkey dinner. I figured it was early enough that we would be wanting it again by Thanksgiving. :)

After dinner my aunt Paula helped me with some alterations on pants and a dress and now it's definitely time for some shut eye.